This is Rick Coombe's FRED he built and flew. Fred was constructed between 1981 and 1984 approx.2200hrs taken to complete
and built as per drawings with extra fuel tank and radio,
also a trim tab was formed on the left elevator (non standard).
The first problem was over weight by about 50lb mostly due to fact that my
fred was of the short nose style this required a 20lb battery on
the firewall to bring CG into limits so the extra fuel tank was discardedand
a new seat was designed and constructed this allowed about gals
of fuel to be uploaded.
The next snag was Fred would not leave the ground no matter how fast the
ground run - much frustration!
The cure was a much reduced tail skid to allow the tail to drop and thus
increase the angle of attack. What a relief it actually left the ground.
I was unable to do the first flight as at that time as I only had about
20hrs in commanded and none on tail wheel, but a good brave friend
offered his services and as he flew a VP1 he had experience of Volkswagen
1600cc engines.
First flight was uneventful and Brian was so impressed that after a 15
minute flight he took off and flew to a rally on a local airfield.
A month later I flew Fred for the first time and it was very exciting as I
had not flown anything but a Cessna 152 and 172 also Piper
Cherokee - all trikes with reasonable power - Fred has neither. Full
power about 35hp gives
quite good acceleration to 35 mph
lift-off , climb at 40mph and approx. 300ft per min - cruise at 55-60mph.
Stall it does not! No power, stick full aft gives 30mph indicated
and a lively decent much like a parachute - very good fun as you can arrive
over runway threshold at about 600ft - kill the power
haul back and wait, then at 20ft a quick burst of power and float on with
about 20yds roll to a stop!
Then disaster, one hot day after some ground runs engine failure at 60ft on
take-off and because of the farm field I used at this time
had no choice but to stall on to the biggest gorse bush in the New Forest.
A very loud noise followed by deep silence left me
strapped to the seat staring at the ground through a very large hole in the
cockpit floor! Unstrapping the bits I checked for injury
thank goodness none!
Walked back to the farm rang my wife (she could see me take-off from our
kitchen window) to say I was ok.
Then it happened, the arrival of a Sea- King search and rescue helicopter,
two fire appliances, ambulances and four police vehicles.
A local chopper pilot had seen me go down and issued a Mayday. This
resulted in a 29 page questionnaire from the Air Accident
Investigation Branch together with radio and TV interviews after a
nationwide broadcast of a jet fighter crashing in the New Forest!!!
I must say the reason for no injury was probably due to the collapse of the
cross tube between the top of the suspension legs.
Anyway the rebuild gave me chance to incorporate some changes. The main one
being to move the wing back 2" and increase the
wing angle of attack by plus one degree. This allowed me to remove the
heavy battery and radio which I never used. Brakes were
fitted to the main wheels and a castoring tail wheel added.
Fred flew again one year after the accident and beautifully too.
The next thing that happend the right undercarrage folded back on a very
gentle landing resulting in wing tip to wing tip cartwheel.
This was due to bad design as the brace tube joins the main tube of the A
frame 3" up from the axle - I debated about it when I
formed the frame but thought it must be ok. We checked the airframe over
and rebuilt again but on offering the wings to the
centre section found the left wing main spar had cracked. I admitted
defeat and bodged it up and my wife and I towed it all over
southern England to steam and vintage fairs raising money for charity.
Eventually we moved house and had nowhere to store it and sold it to a
friend. I enjoyed every minute of building and flying
Fred and met many super people by doing so.
Regards Rick Coombe
P S Fred was named "Gift of Wings" after Richard Bachs book originally, but
renamed "Fuzzbee" after the first crash.
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Another picture of G-BKZT. Thanks to Charley Verrall for use of his copyrighted picture.
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